City weathers temporary suspension of $1M urban forestry grant

GOSHEN — A federal grant awarded to Goshen's urban forestry program has been restored after it was suspended months ago amid federal anti-DEI orders.
The city earned a $1 million, three-year grant in 2023 from the Department of Agriculture's Urban and Community Forestry Program, which was funded with $1.5 billion through then-President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. Communities that received the grant learned in February that funding was suspended to comply with anti-diversity and equity orders that came immediately after President Donald Trump's inauguration.
Aaron Sawatsky-Kingsley, director of Goshen's Environmental Resilience Department, said the grant funding was reinstated in early March. He said the city is trying to move forward with the program after it was unexpectedly halted.
'The suspension represented a lot of scrambling to pull things apart and shut things down, and so we're scrambling again to put everything back together and shore up relationships,' he said Thursday. 'That's certainly the intention, is to absorb the speed bump here and get everything put back together and continue to roll. All of those partners, all of the subcontractors, are interested in continuing.'
Goshen's application outlined an arboricultural employment training program focused on at-risk youth, to help produce more professionals who could support urban tree canopy goals. The city also plans to expand its inventory of trees and plants to support urban forests and food forests, as well as delivering public and business education programs.
'We've got projects that are focused on planting trees in Goshen, and within that, projects that are focused on getting trees into commercial sites and also trees to residential sites. And then we've got another project that is focused on workforce development, working with high school students to give them arborist training,' Sawatsky-Kingsley said. 'And then for the third important project covered by our grant, we're expanding our tree nursery.'
The city chose The Crossing and Bushelcraft Farm as its workforce development partners and was able to employ several individuals with the grant to help meet its own tree planting goals. The city couldn't meet its needs without them, according to Theresa Sailor, city grant writer and an educator with the environmental department.
'We have two part-time folks that are paid for out of the grant. Lee Strader-Bergey, our horticulture specialist, they're ordering all of our plants, they're going to be managing out new nursery out at the wellfield,' she told Goshen Common Council at its Feb. 24 meeting. 'There are thousands of plants and trees coming that we are going to have to manage, so it's not something that our staff can handle without Lee. We don't even have enough time to be able to put them in the ground or hand them out. We need help with that.'
Sailor said the budding initiative was jeopardized when the grant was canceled by the U.S. Forest Service in mid-February.
In a Feb. 14 email, the Forest Service wrote that the award 'no longer effectuates agency priorities regarding diversity, equity and inclusion programs and activities.' In a statement, its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the agency was following directions to comply with Trump's executive orders.
Sailor said the city was sent scrambling to find ways to keep Strader-Bergey as well as a summer water truck driver who was also covered by the grant.
'We are currently trying to redesign our budget to keep them. They're really important to our operation. And I have to say I really hope the grant gets funded again,' she said at the time. 'If it doesn't though, there are some changes in our department that we have made throughout this process that we really believe were good.'
Those included transitioning to smaller tree whips, which are significantly cheaper than larger trees planted with the ball and burlap method. Sailor said whips can be had for as little as 55 cents, vs. $350 to $400 for a ball and burlap tree.
'There's a pretty substantial savings there. And when we buy those young trees, we're usually buying them 200 or more apiece. We currently have giveaways that you can get trees and you can get plants... as a part of getting people to invest in their own properties,' she said. 'It was nice to get federal money for that, because with city money, we focused on right of way trees. And this way you can plant things in your yard, and it's reasonable, it's helping connect people to native (species).'
Sawatsky-Kingsley said they're moving forward with some uncertainty still hanging over them. He said there's a lot that's out of their hands.
'Following the suspension, we kind of live with a different awareness, looking over our shoulder, of how that could happen. That's part of the reality that we're living with,' he said. 'We believe deeply that the work that's being funded with this grant is good and important and valuable.'
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun fell in step behind the Trump administration in March when he ordered state agencies and officials not to consider factors such as race, educational attainment, ethnicity or other 'environmental justice' criteria in permitting, enforcement or grant decisions.
Sawatsky-Kingsley said disadvantaged communities tend to have less urban tree canopy, and environmental policy decisions shouldn't ignore that fact. The $1.5 billion in funding under Biden was explicitly meant to help communities that are marginalized, underserved and lack access to trees and nature.
The Michiana Area Council of Governments keeps track of indicators of potential disadvantage in and around Elkhart County with its environmental justice analysis map at maps-macog.hub.arcgis.com. It highlights areas in the City of Elkhart where household poverty is as high as 75 percent and neighborhoods in the county where more than half of households have elderly or disabled individuals.
'To use the governor's language, he talks about wanting to 'protect our environment and grow our economy' ... I've got no argument with that,' Sawatsky-Kingsley said. 'I think the economy of certain underserved communities and neighborhoods needs to be understood and addressed, given historic realities. The economy in those neighborhoods is valued as much as the economy in other neighborhoods and communities that are better off, and that means finding ways for the environment to be part of the greater economy.'

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